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This is not going to be a happy 
sermon. We're going to look at a Christian 
view of abortion. Today being the Sanctity of Life 
Sunday, Exodus 21, 22 to 25 is a defining text with reference 
to this sin and this crime that is perpetrated on such a wide 
scale in our generation. This morning I want to do three 
things. I want to notice first of all the sanctity of human 
life. Secondly, note the personhood of the pre-born. And thirdly, 
look at this specific text which deals with abortion in Exodus 
21, 22 to 25. If men fight and hurt a woman 
with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm 
follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman's husband 
imposes on him. And he shall pay as the judges 
determine. But if any harm follows, then 
you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, 
hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, 
stripe for stripe. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our 
Father, we thank You for the Holy Scriptures. We thank You 
that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and that it's 
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for 
instruction in righteousness. And we pray, Lord God, that You 
would fill each one of us with Your Spirit and that You would 
thoroughly furnish us unto every good work. We pray that You would 
forgive us for our sin. Forgive us that we don't always 
think Your thoughts after You, that our prayer lives often reflect 
a lack of concern for Your world. We just pray now, Most High God, 
that You would correct us, that You would help us, Lord God, 
to live as You call us to in this world, to be lights shining 
in a crooked and perverse generation, and to hold forth Your Word of 
Truth. God, how we praise You that You've 
not left us alone in this world, that You have given us Your Spirit. 
You've given us both the Old and the New Testaments. And we 
pray that You would just help us to take these weapons of our 
warfare and to apply them in our lives. We ask through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen. Now, the abortion debate 
is not a political issue. It is rather a spiritual, biblical, 
religious, and ethical issue. In fact, the two leaders of all 
mankind are defined with reference to their position in this issue. The Lord Jesus Christ is the 
way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but 
through Him. Jesus is the light of the world 
and the life of men. And the devil is a murderer from 
the beginning. Those being the two leaders of 
mankind, we see that these are, in fact, defining issues with 
reference to their lead, with reference to their headship. 
Now, last week I mentioned that there has been a decline in the 
number of abortions committed in Canada. The number is down 
to 97,000, roughly. That's an estimate. Now, that 
is tragic. That is absolutely horrific. And that is way too many. Any or one is way too many. But when you look at 97,000 babies 
that have been aborted in their mother's womb, may God indeed 
have mercy upon such a wretched nation. Our neighbors to the 
south, the nation from which I hail, the numbers are down 
there as well. However, it's still about a million 
plus per year. It's just an absolute atrocity 
that this continues on. The numbers worldwide are staggering. The numbers committed throughout 
the nations of the earth ought to make us weep profusely. That will be one of my recommendations 
at the end of the message this morning. I do want to look at 
the sanctity of human life first of all. Francis Schaeffer said 
this. He said, In the flood loss of 
humanness in our age, including the flow from abortion on demand 
to infanticide and on to euthanasia, the only thing that can stem 
this tide is the certainty of the absolute uniqueness and value 
of people. And the only thing which gives 
us that is the knowledge that people are made in the image 
of God. We have no other final protection. And the only way 
we know that people are made in the image of God is through 
the Bible and in the incarnation of Christ, which we know from 
the Bible. Now, Schaeffer's not saying we 
don't take what science says. In fact, science does validate 
the personhood of the pre-born. But science only tells us what 
is. Science cannot prescribe what 
ought to be. And so, therefore, we must turn 
to the Scriptures. And the Bible tells us that man 
has sanctity because he is made in the image of God. A defining 
text, of course, is Genesis 1, 26 and 27. God made man in his 
own image, male and female. He made them. This is true of 
man before the fall, as we see there in Genesis 1, 26 and 27. But it's true of man after the 
fall. James, in his argument with reference to the proper 
use of our tongue, in James 3, 9, he says that with our tongue 
we bless God and with it we curse men who have been made in His 
likeness. So James does not believe that 
the image of God is eradicated through the fall into sin, but 
rather it is upheld. Distorted, deformed as it may 
be, post-fall persons still bear the image of God. This is true, 
or the sanctity of life is true of the pre-born or the unborn, 
which we'll look at in more detail in our second main point. But 
it's true of children. Children outside of the womb. 
In the Old Testament, in the book of Leviticus, they were 
prohibited from offering their children as sacrifice. The pagans 
around them may have offered up their children in sacrifice 
to Molech, but the covenant community were forbidden because those 
children possessed dignity. They had sanctity. They were 
made in the image of God. In Ephesians 6, Paul tells fathers 
not to provoke their children unto wrath. Why? Because they 
are image-bearers of God. You don't get to run left-shot 
over your children. You don't get to treat them as 
second-class citizens. You don't get to treat them as 
something inferior. But rather you are to treat them 
with respect and not provoke them unto wrath. The sanctity 
of life is protected in the Bible for the handicapped. We're not 
to curse the deaf. We're not to put a stumbling 
block before the blind. God's Word upholds the reality 
that there are handicapped among us and we are to treat them with 
dignity. There's an amazing account of 
our Lord's sympathy for the handicapped in the account of Bartimaeus. 
I love that account. Jesus walking through the town, 
the whole crowd is assembled, and blind Bartimaeus says, Jesus, 
thou Son of David, have mercy upon me. The crowd looks at him 
as a second-class citizen. They sternly rebuke him and tell 
him to be quiet. In other words, don't bother 
the Master. So what does Bartimaeus do? He 
opens up his mouth again and he screams out, Jesus, thou Son 
of David, have mercy upon me. Christ stops. Christ walks over 
to him. And Christ says, what would thou 
have me to do? And he says, Lord, I want to 
see. So Jesus healed him. The Bible says that the elderly 
among us have sanctity of life. We don't just marginalize the 
elderly and put them in places where we don't want to deal with 
them anymore. No young men are told to rise 
in the presence of the gray-headed man. Paul tells Timothy that 
he's not to rebuke an older man, but to exhort, to encourage, 
to come alongside of him. The Bible says that man as image 
bearer has a place of superiority over the animals. Certain aspects 
of society may not like to hear that, but it is the truth. God 
has put man as the pinnacle of creation and has given him dominion 
over the animals. Now let us move on secondly to 
the personhood of the pre-born. In the book of Genesis, in Genesis 
25, 18 to 23, we see that nations come from the womb. Jacob and 
Esau are treated as persons in their mother's womb. In Job chapter 
10, just rehearsing a few of these passages, and if you were 
here last year, you're probably saying, boy, this is quite the 
review. Well, there's a method to the madness. I fear at times 
we don't know the Bible as we ought to know it. And so this 
is a review. These are texts you should have 
mastered. These are passages that you need 
to put in your arsenal. These are texts that should define 
your prayer life and your witness for Christ when it comes to this 
particular issue. In Job 10 at verse 8, your hands 
have made me and fashioned me, an intricate unity, yet you would 
destroy me. Remember, I pray, that you have 
made me like clay. And will you turn me into dust 
again? Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like 
cheese? Clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with 
bones and sinews? You have granted me life and 
favor, and your care has preserved my spirit." And then in Job 31, 
as he is asserting his righteousness, as he is saying that he has not 
coveted a woman, as he is saying that he has not oppressed the 
poor. One of his arguments is simply this, that God made from 
the womb, not only Job, but his servants. Job 31, verse 13, if 
I have despised the cause of my male or female servant when 
they complained against me, what then shall I do when God rises 
up? When He punishes, how shall I 
answer Him? Did not He who made me in the 
womb make them? Did not the same One fashion 
us in the womb?" And of course, the Psalter, Psalm 51, as David 
is tracing back his native depravity. He says, in sin, my mother conceived 
me. That does not mean that the conjugal 
relationship between David's father and mother was a sinful 
act. Rather, it is highlighting that 
as soon as David was conceived, he was David. And he was a recipient 
by amputation of Adam's sin. So he can say, in sin, my mother 
conceived me. And then that testimony to the 
divine weaver in Psalm 139. Speaking of God's handiwork in 
fashioning men. In Psalm 139 verse 13, For you 
formed my inward parts, you covered me in my mother's womb. I will 
praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous 
are your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was 
not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully 
wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance 
being yet unformed, and in your book they all were written. the 
days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them." 
In Jeremiah chapter 1 at verse 5, he speaks of having been separated 
from his mother's womb for the prophetic ministry. We move on 
into the New Testament and language used of babies in their mother's 
womb is the same language applied to babies outside of their mother's 
womb. Luke chapter 1 at verse 15, for 
he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink 
neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the 
Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And then later in verses 
41 to 44, we read it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting 
of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb. There's actually 
a site out there that advocates a Christian view of abortion. The argument actually goes that, 
well, this one account of John the Baptist being filled with 
the Spirit in his mother's womb certainly can't be representative 
of all other persons. Well, you see, the same words 
are used for those in the womb as they are outside of the womb. 
In Luke chapter 18, Jesus says, suffer the little ones to come 
unto me. Permit them, let them come. The 
same language used here in Luke 1 of babies in the womb, brefe, 
is the same language applied to babies outside or children 
outside of the womb. We continue on in verse 44 of 
Luke 1. For indeed, as soon as the voice 
of your greetings sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my 
womb for joy. And it's very interesting in 
verse 43, it says, but why is this granted to me that the mother 
of my Lord should come to me? So the babe Christ in the womb 
is nevertheless the Lord of Elizabeth. Paul speaks something like Jeremiah 
in that he says that he was separated from his mother's womb for the 
work of apostleship to which the Lord God had entrusted to 
him. Job's mother, David's mother, 
Jeremiah's mother, Mary and Paul's mother lived in the 21st century 
and the pro-abortion advocates had their way. Nations would 
not have been. Job, David, Jeremiah and Paul 
would not have been. And all of us would have died 
in our sins if the incarnation would have been squashed. Brethren, 
there is no doubt that the Bible teaches the personhood of the 
pre-born. There is no doubt whatsoever. 
We cannot develop all of these passages. This is an overview. 
This is a thumbnail sketch. It's something just to hopefully 
whet your appetite. Hopefully you're writing down 
texts. Hopefully afterwards you'll say, can you send me that list 
so that I can go through them on my own? so that I can compare 
Scripture with Scripture, so that I can inform my conscience, 
so that I know what's going on in the world around me? Don't neglect this issue. Don't close your eyes and pretend 
that it isn't there. How many times can a man turn 
his head and pretend he just doesn't see. The Christian church by and large 
has been doing that for a lot of years. Pretending like this holocaust 
isn't going on. Praying, bless me Lord, bless 
me Lord, but never praying, God may your will be done on earth 
as it is in heaven. Whenever I start talking about 
that with people, oh, you've got to think about heaven. Jesus 
defined the prayer closet, and he said that we are to pray God's 
will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Van Til said that 
the Christian ought never to be satisfied with anything less 
than the eradication of all evil. Oh, we won't see it on this side 
of heaven. I grant that. But certainly we must look like 
the men of Ezekiel's time who sighed and cried over the abominations 
in the land. We need to think God's thoughts 
after Him. He actually is concerned about 
this earth. It's His, the fullness of it. He chastens nations. He judges 
nations. He puts them down. He raises 
them back up. Very interesting account in the 
prophet Jeremiah. The exiles are instructed to 
stay in Babylon. And while in Babylon, they are 
told to pray for the peace of the city that they are in. Why? So that they can be effective 
witnesses for God. Now let's move to Exodus 21. 
defining text with reference to the abortion debate. There 
should be no debate. God has settled this question 
once and for all. There ought not to be a debate. Remember the context. Exodus 
20 is the giving of the law of God via Moses. Moses is an instrument. Moses is a vessel. But Moses 
is simply the man of God for the hour. The law is the Lord's. You know, we talk about Moses 
being the law giver. And I have no problem with that, 
except to say this. Moses gave the law of God. It wasn't just some man, Moses, 
saying, hey, I've got a bunch of people I've got to lead. Let 
me figure out the best way of marshalling them in. No, God 
spoke from Sinai and said, you must, you must, you must, you 
must. That's Exodus 20. Notice verse 1 of Exodus 21. Now these are the judgments which 
you shall set before them. In other words, 21 to 24 are 
an exposition or an application of those laws in Exodus 20. We've got the 10 laws in the 
Decalogue. And now Moses comes in 21-24 
to show how these things flesh themselves out in society. Walter Kaiser comments this way. He says, while these judgments 
deal mainly with temporal matters, they nevertheless are based on 
one or another expressed commandment in the Decalogue. It is most 
appropriate, therefore, that these judicial and political 
regulations given by God to Moses when Moses approached the thick 
darkness where God was should be set alongside the Decalogue. The two belong together in time 
as well as in interpretation. We've got the general principles 
of Exodus 20, and Exodus 21 begins to develop the concrete applications 
of those general principles. And here in Exodus 21, 12 to 
32, it deals specifically with laws concerning murder, manslaughter, 
and bodily injury. Notice in verse 22, if men fight, 
and hurt a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, 
yet no harm follows." Now this is a good translation. Some Bible 
versions render it this way. It says, if men fight and hurt 
a woman with child so that she has a miscarriage and yet no 
harm follows, then comes the penalty. There's a problem with 
that because if it's a miscarriage and then no harm follows, all 
that's in view is the woman. But if we translate it properly, 
the way the New King James does here, you have a premature birth. So you have the woman and the 
child that are protected by the law of God. You see that? Now 
there is a specific word for miscarriage which is absent from 
this passage. There is a specific Hebrew word 
for the product of a miscarriage or one untimely born which is 
absent from this passage. The literal rendition of this 
particular passage is found in the New King James margin. If 
men fight and hurt a woman with child so that her children come 
out. So that her, it's plural, children 
come out, envisaging the possibility that she has twins, or triplets, 
or the next one. What is it? Quattuplets? Pentuplets? Sextuplets? All these tuplets? 
You see the law of God. I am drawn to the law of God 
because it's so beautiful. It's so comprehensive. It's so 
precise. Some say, oh, it's barbaric. 
No, humanism is barbaric. God's law is perfect. This language is used throughout 
the Bible of her children coming out to refer to the natural birth 
process. So, go back to the text. What 
you have are two men fighting. And in the midst of their fight, 
a woman who is pregnant is standing there. As these two men are fighting, 
she gets struck. If she gives birth prematurely, 
then her and her child or children are protected by the law of God. 
See, to read it as a miscarriage says she's miscarried. That is 
now out of the equation. If no harm follows to the mother, 
then the law is prescribed. But that's not the way it is. 
It's very particular. It is affording protection. legal 
status, not to the product of conception, but to the children 
of her womb. That's what's in view here. So, 
these two men are fighting. She gets struck. It goes on to 
say, yet no harm follows. That means to the woman, or to 
the child or children, he shall surely be punished accordingly 
as the woman's husband imposes on him, and he shall pay as the 
judges determine." So, because of the pain and the suffering 
and the risk, if there is no harm to mother or child, there 
is a financial payment that is due. See, the Bible, biblical 
law, is very pro-victim. See, when a man got caught doing 
something wrong, he didn't get sent to prison to pay his debt 
to the state. He had to pay his debt to the 
victim. Boy, have we forgotten that. The state is growing increasingly 
rich while victims are penalized. Twice. Not only do they get robbed 
or abused or butchered or whatever, then they've got to pay taxes 
to support their violations. Don't you ever get to the point 
where you say, when all else fails, let's go back to the owner's 
manual? Let's go back to the instructions? But notice what the law of God 
commands. It says, yet, or but, verse 23, 
if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life. Now 
remember, there's two potential victims here. There's the mother 
and her premature baby or babies. If any harm follows to her or 
to her brood. You see, the law of God is affording 
protection to the preemie. The law of God is providing protection 
for children. If any harm follows, then you 
shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand 
for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe 
for stripe." Now it's precisely here that many Christians want 
to jump ship. Okay, we agree the Bible prohibits 
the murder of the pre-born. However, this principle of eye 
for eye is barbaric and inhumane. No, it isn't. In fact, it supposedly 
lives on today under this rubric, the punishment must fit the crime. 
We're all comfortable with that statement, the punishment must 
fit the crime. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, 
stripe for stripe, life for life. If you've got the mindset that 
something in the Bible isn't good, you need to repent. Oh, but Jesus said in Matthew 
5, we're to turn the other cheek. Different context. That's a different context. Don't 
be like the Pharisees. Don't be vindictive. Don't promote 
yourself. Don't make your rights the preeminence 
of all. Jesus was not teaching that if 
a man comes into your house and rapes your daughter, you give 
him your other one. That is atrocity. And yet that's the kind of exegesis 
we have to deal with today? Jesus was not there saying we 
are not to lock our doors or lock our windows. Jesus knows 
better than anyone how bad this world is. Jesus uses the argument 
of self-defense in Luke 12. If the strong man knew when the 
violator was going to come, he'd be there to take care of business. You have to see the increased 
protection here for the pre-born. Remember back in just a few verses 
preceding this, there's a distinction made between manslaughter and 
murder. Murder is when I premeditate. Murder is when I try to take 
your life from you for no reason. Manslaughter is when I accidentally 
kill you. I don't mean it, but I go out 
in my backyard to chop wood and I didn't check the axe head. 
It's not on there well and it flies off and it hits you in 
the head and you die. It was an accident. I didn't 
mean to do it. God prescribed cities of refuge 
in that particular instance. The man who committed manslaughter 
would go to a city of refuge. That was no skate in the park. 
I mean, he had to leave his job, he had to leave his home, he 
had to leave all that stuff and go to this city of refuge. But 
you notice here, this is an accident, so to speak. These men are fighting 
each other. They didn't intend to hit this 
woman, but they did. They committed murder while committing 
another crime. And as a result, God applies 
the lex talionis, the Latin phrase which means the law of retribution. And if you think that that does 
not abide in the New Covenant, you have not read the New Testament. 
God operates this way. 2 Thessalonians, Paul talks about 
God operating this way on a cosmic level. It is right for God to 
pay back with tribulation those who trouble you. There is increased 
protection in this particular situation. Now, we've seen already 
and we've introduced this law of retaliation. If any harm follows, 
then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for 
tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for 
wound, Stripe for stripe. And just think about it for a 
moment, brethren. What would you prefer if you 
got into a fight with somebody, not presupposing that any of 
y'all are going to go out and get in a fight, but say someone 
cut you off. I had a man threaten to do bodily 
injury to me the other day. I didn't even cut him off. I 
watched him do something. He looked at me and boy, he got 
upset. Got out of his car with the language, 
threatening to hurt me. Well, what if he came over and 
actually yanked me out of my van, which I'm glad he didn't, 
and we got into it and I knock his tooth out? I would much rather 
the magistrate just take one of mine out and then put me in 
a prison cell for 40 years with somebody that's going to do a 
lot more harm to me than knock a tooth out. So we look at this 
and we say, oh, horror of horrors. That's because we've been humanized. 
We're not biblicists. We don't say, oh, how I love 
thy law. I guarantee you, we all sing 
a different song when someone does something wrong to us. I 
remember several years ago, must have been in the 80s, Robert 
Alton Harris was going to be executed in the state of California 
for a crime. And there were all night candlelight 
vigils about how horrible the death penalty was and how bad 
it was to inflict capital punishment upon him. In fact, an archbishop 
from the Roman Catholic Church cited with an anti-death penalty 
view. There was one guy, one bystander 
that said this, I would love to see all of these people if 
it was their own wife or their own daughter who had been brutalized. Because when that happens, we're 
all raring for the law to be applied and pressed. It's sick. And for Christians not to think 
biblically is offensive. You know, most of the time I 
have to defend a biblical position. It ain't with the pagans. It's 
with the Christian. Oh, that means you follow this. 
No, it's right here. I mean, sure, you could try to 
exegete your way out of this, but it's there. The lax talionis is the sanction, 
the law of retaliation. If during the struggle the woman 
is struck and her baby is born prematurely and no harm follows 
to either mother or children, a monetary fine is assessed because 
of the potential danger and the hardship incurred. If harm follows 
to either mother or child, then the penalty is capital punishment. 
Now, that brings us to that whole not debate. Any serious student of the Bible 
should never question the validity of the death penalty. Genesis 
9-6 sets it down. Whoever sheds man's blood by 
man, his blood will be shed for in the image of God he made man. Romans 13 upholds it. Paul says that the civil magistrate 
has been given the sword. You're not given the sword to 
put people into a prison to teach them how to be lawyers. You are 
given a sword to execute criminal offenders. That's what's in view. That's the penalty here. Gary 
North says, Western humanists today regard biblical law as 
primitive and brutal. We must ask. Is the concern of 
humanists for the brutality shown by the Bible's eye-for-eye principle 
misguided? Shouldn't their concern be focused 
instead on the brutality of the criminal against the innocent 
victim? Isn't the lex talionis principle 
a deterrent to crime, especially repeated crimes by a criminal 
class? Shouldn't our concern be with 
the victims of violent crime rather than with the criminals 
who commit them? That's where we are today. We're 
more concerned about the criminal than the victim. How many times 
can a man turn his head and pretend he just doesn't see? He goes on to say, with reference 
to the Christian community's response, the moral schizophrenia 
of contemporary pietism can be seen when anti-abortion picketers 
confront killer physicians at their offices with some variation 
of smile, God loves you, or God hates abortion but loves abortionists. He says, on the contrary, God 
hates abortionists and he demands that the civil government execute 
them. See, a lot of Christians are 
saying, wait a minute, I don't know about all that. Proverbs 
6.17 tells us, there are six things the Lord hates, yea, seven 
are an abomination to Him, and one of them is hands that shed 
innocent blood. John Calvin says, if it seems 
more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, 
because a man's house is his place of most secure refuge, 
It ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus 
in the womb before it has come to light. Remember when I worked 
at Northrop Grumman, there was a man who came walking in and 
he had a t-shirt on with a garbage can and it said, this is no place 
for babies. This is no place for babies. Try telling that to the enlightened 
among us. Try telling that to the social 
engineers of our day. Brethren, I want to close first 
with the folly of the pro-abortion movement, the foolishness of 
it. I think common sense died a long 
time ago and with common sense was her brother, logic. It affects pagans badly. It affects Christians badly. Logic is a reflection of God's 
thought process. We ought not to be anti-logic. 
Elton Trueblood, who I think was a Quaker philosopher, said 
that the Christian must outthink his opponent in every sphere. Amen. Amen. The Folly of the Pro-Abortion 
Movement, and there are several more to be sure. Probably the 
best book is a book called Pro-Life, Answers to Pro-Choice Questions 
or Pro-Choice Objections by Randy Alcorn. As George Grant says, 
if your library, if you have one book in your library dealing 
with abortion, make it that book. He amasses a whole host of information. There is a copy or there should 
be a copy in the library. If not, we You can find them. They're easy to procure. But the claim is made that the 
pre-born are not fully human. Several years ago, Samuel Alexander 
Armas defied this argument. Who's Samuel Alexander? Armas. You would only know him by the 
picture that was in circulation. He was the little fella that 
when he was being operated on in his mother's womb, stuck his 
hand out of his mother's womb and grabbed the finger of the 
doctor. It's an amazing thing that while 
Samuel Alexander Armas was being operated on in the hospital while 
he's in the womb, his cousin could have been being aborted 
in the very same hospital. It's amazing that when Scott 
Peterson murdered his pregnant wife, he's charged with double 
homicide. Do we not see the logic in these 
things? Do we not see the folly of it? Will anyone rise up and say the 
emperor has no clothes on? Henry Morgenthaler says an unwanted 
pregnancy is an accidental pregnancy. Wow, I'm glad you cleared that 
up. Now just imagine for a moment that you walked into a store 
and purchased a high-dollar item. And you went home and you decided 
you didn't want it after all. Could you go back to the store 
and say, I accidentally purchased this. I don't know what I was 
doing. Please give me a refund. You 
didn't accidentally do a thing. One must ask, when a woman has 
sex and is impregnated, did she accidentally have it? And yet no one stands up and 
says the emperor has no clothes on. This guy is a champion of 
human rights? This guy from an alleged background 
of being a Holocaust survivor wants to make a difference in 
the lives of people. Oh, he's made a difference. He 
has made a difference, to be sure. He has helped saturate 
this country with the blood of innocents and made a ton of money. Robert George comments on President-elect 
Obama that he is the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to 
seek the office of President of the United States. He is the 
most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate. 
Indeed, he is the most extreme pro-abortion legislator ever 
to serve in either house of the United States Congress. From 
the National Post, December 6, 2008, Mr. Obama said during his 
campaign that one of his first acts as president would be to 
sign into law the Freedom of Choice Act, a bill that both 
supporters and opponents say would go far beyond the landmark 
Supreme Court decision, Roe versus Wade, which made abortion legal 
in 1973. Watching some of his interviews 
on this subject of abortion, His typical response is that 
he trusts women to make the right decision. This is a delicate, 
hot topic. Women don't take these things 
casually. So I trust them, he says, to 
make the right decisions for them. Thirteen-year-old pregnant girls 
can't decide what to put on MySpace. but we can trust them to make 
decisions of life and death? Consider the response, well, 
I personally do not believe in abortion. I support a woman's 
right to choose. That's like saying, well, I don't 
personally engage in rape. I support a man's right to choose. That same Robert George, in illustrating 
the absurdity of this argument, writes, I am personally opposed 
to killing abortionists. However, inasmuch as my personal 
opposition to this practice is rooted in a sectarian religious 
belief in the sanctity of human life, I am unwilling to impose 
it on others who may, as a matter of conscience, take a different 
view. Of course, I'm entirely in favor of policies aimed at 
removing the root causes of violence against abortionists. Indeed, 
I would go so far as to support mandatory one-week waiting periods. 
and even non-judgmental counseling for people who are contemplating 
the choice of killing an abortionist. I believe in policies that reduce 
the urgent need some people feel to kill abortionists, while at 
the same time respecting the rights of conscience of my fellow 
citizens who believe that the killing of abortionists is sometimes 
a tragic necessity, not a good, but a lesser evil. In short, 
I am moderately pro-choice. Do not leave here and say, Jim 
Butler said we can shoot abortionists. That's not what I'm saying. But that argument is as laughable 
as someone who says, well, personally, I don't agree with abortion. 
I will not prohibit a woman's right to choose. While personally 
I don't engage in drive-by shootings, I will not infringe upon the 
bloods of the Crips to abstain from something they deem is a 
healthy expression of their freedom. May God have mercy on us. What about the case of rape or 
incest? which, by the way, makes up about 
1% of the numbers of abortions. Whenever they talk rape and incest, 
here, cash and convenience. Morgenthaler, this champion of 
human rights, what does he want? He wants his clinic to collect 
federal tax money. A woman's right for abortion 
and a healthy retirement for me. Praise God that if my father 
had been a robber, they didn't decide to murder me. If someone's father is a rapist, 
we don't right the wrong by killing a baby. I'm not the brightest bulb in 
the chandelier, brethren, but I see how weak these arguments 
are. And these are the best of the 
lot. The comedians all have a lot 
to say on this subject as well. Pro-abortion, Chris Rock and 
George Carlin, speaking as if they are the Pope themselves 
in their pronouncements of what is right and what is wrong. There is a question, is it ever 
right to perform an abortion? We ask the Bible, is it ever 
right to kill someone? The Bible answers, yes, it is 
right to kill someone in three instances. One of three instances. One, capital punishment by the 
civil magistrate. Genesis 9, Romans 13. Two, legitimate war. Legitimate 
war. You cannot escape the reality 
that there are times in the history of man where there is war. In 
fact, Romans 13 is to promote or protect its citizenry from 
enemies, probably both domestic and from afar. And then the third 
time that it's legitimate is in self-defense. Exodus 22. If a man breaks into your house 
at night, you do not know what his intentions are, so if in 
your defense he dies, biblical law does not call you guilty. 
In fact, Matthew Henry said, a man's house is his castle, 
and God's law, as well as man's, sets a guard upon it. He that 
assaults it does so at his own peril. Good, good. Too bad Matthew Henry isn't more 
well-read and believed and listened to. So those are the three instances. Abortion doesn't fit any of those. 
We can't say the civil magistrate should capitally punish A baby 
in the womb just doesn't fly. That's how we are to understand 
hands that shed innocent blood. Well, you Calvinists affirm everybody's 
guilty. In fact, Butler, last week you said we're worse than 
worms. Judicially innocent. People that haven't done anything 
wrong to others, they are still in, Adam. Judicial innocence. We don't wage war against the 
unborn. We don't equip them with guns 
and rations and all those things necessary so that they may indeed 
fight us back. And certainly we don't have to 
defend ourselves from invading pre-born babies. It's never right to kill a baby 
in the womb. What about rape? We love the mother. We love the 
baby. What about incest? These are 
hard things, brethren. You never compound evil and make 
it go away. You can never obliterate the 
heinousness of that deed through compounding crime. What about women will seek it 
in a back alley? The back alley prior to Roe versus 
Wade was Morgenthaler's clinic. They were clinics. They were 
doctors, professing doctors. It's rhetoric designed to cloud 
the issue so that we'll say, well, we don't want them to go 
into a back alley and engage in that. The solution to this 
problem is law and gospel. Remember last week, we saw the 
threefold use of God's law, and the first was the civil or political 
use. It is to restrain wickedness. J. Dressen Machen said it well. The civil government is not intended 
to produce blessedness or happiness. Not what we want them to do. 
I don't want them to make me happy or bless me. I just want 
them to leave me alone. He says, the civil government 
is not intended to produce blessedness or happiness, but intended to 
prevent blessedness or happiness from being interfered with by 
wicked men. That's their job. Carl F.H. Henry. Even where there is no 
saving faith, the law serves to restrain sin and to preserve 
the order of creation by proclaiming the will of God. By its judgments 
and its threats of condemnation and punishment, the written law, 
along with the law of conscience, hinders sin among the unregenerate. It has the role of a magistrate 
who is a terror to evildoers. It fulfills a political function. 
Therefore, by its constraining influence in the unregenerate 
world, it is a restraining influence. It cannot promote everlasting 
life. It cannot change the heart, but 
it can restrain the heart less. Christians are fools when they 
abandon God's law. There, I said it. The law and 
the gospel A woman needs to hear, there 
is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. Before you start saying, oh, 
an abortionist, and the woman that has it, and the father who 
wrote the check, and all those people are so evil. You're evil 
too. I'm evil. That's so easy to judge everybody 
else and say how wicked they are. We of all people should 
be preaching gospel salvation to abortionists and to women 
and to fathers. Because we know what it is to 
be saved by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. We know what 
it is to be cleansed. We know what it is, in the language 
of Paul, to be washed, to be justified, to be sanctified. We know what it is to have a 
Savior who loved us and who gave Himself for us. We want to preach 
that gospel loudly and clearly to all sinners. Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. But with that as well, 
if you reject, if you refuse, if you do not believe, God will 
deal with you severely. He loathes, He abominates hands 
that shed innocent blood. And then fourthly, by way of 
response, how do we as Christians respond to this tragedy? Well, 
the first thing we ought not to do is pretend it doesn't exist. 
Out of sight is out of mind. Out of sight is out of mind. When you don't think about something, 
you probably don't pray about it. I mean, maybe you're a whole 
lot holier than anyone else in the world, but as a general rule, 
if you don't think about something, you're not going to pray about 
it. You need to be aware. You need to avail yourself of 
the materials. You need to go to the Scriptures. You need to 
get these notes, not because they're these notes, but because 
there are some texts in here that you ought to look upon, 
that you ought to ingest, that you ought to hide in your heart, 
so that you can answer the so-called pro-abortion Christian, or the 
Christian who pretends that it is a political issue. It's a 
life and death issue. Weeping is a good practice. The lost art of crying. There's 
an instance where the prophet Elisha is asked by Hatsahel whether 
his father, Ben-Hadad, would be healed or not from a sickness. Ben-Hadad and Hazael were from 
Syria. And Elisha says, he will be healed, 
but he will die. What does that mean? Then the 
prophet starts to cry. He starts weeping. The man of 
God weeps. Hazael says, what's going on? God has shown me that your father 
will live, but you're going to take care of him so that you 
can ascend the throne. And when you ascend the throne, 
you are going to rip open the wombs of pregnant women and kill 
their children." He cries. He cries. The psalmist said, one I hope 
that you'll learn. You've probably heard it from 
me ten times. Psalm 119, 136. Rivers of waters run down from 
my eyes because men don't keep your law. We want to debate the 
validity of God's law, let alone cry because men break it. Ezekiel 9. Ezekiel 9. Read that sometime 
when you're alone. One of the scariest passages 
in the Bible. The scariest. The prophet gets a vision. Six 
men with slaughtering weapons come to him. And another man 
clothed in linen with a writer's inkling. God tells, God dispatches 
the one man in the linen to go throughout the city and put a 
mark on all those who sigh and cry over the abominations in 
Jerusalem. Go find people who actually care. Go find someone who doesn't turn 
his head and pretend he just doesn't see. Go find them, mark 
them. I almost made the mark of the 
cross. That's inconsequential. You could see who they were because 
they cried. You saw them in the morning and 
you said, hey, how's everything going? They didn't say, great, 
my portfolio is strong. They sighed and cried over the 
abominations in the land. What about those six guys with 
the slaughtering weapons? They were to follow. And they 
were to take those slaughtering weapons and kill everyone who 
didn't bear the mark. This is Jerusalem. This is the 
covenant community. This is the people of God. And 
oh, let's not forget where He's told to start. Begin at My sanctuary. It's terrifying. Do you ever sigh 
and cry? We complain and grumble. I know 
that because I'm right there. Grumble, complain, moan, whine, 
but do we sigh in pride over the abominations, not over our 
liberties being encroached upon, but over the fact that God is 
being offended, that God's law is being trampled upon. We need to pray. Just reading 
in the book of Ezra recently, Ezra declared a fast and they 
prayed for what? The safety of their little ones. John Piper in his book, A Hunger 
for God, fasting and prayer, he deals with that text in Ezra 
8. He talks about how Ezra is such a good example there, praying 
and fasting for the little ones. We need to know the truth. We 
can't just, oh well, somebody out there has the answers. I 
know it's wrong. Somebody can tell you why. You 
need to be able to say why. You need to go to the Bible and 
tell us why there is sanctity in life. You need to be able 
to go to the Bible and show why the pre-born are human beings. 
Why they're not just a lump of cells, undefined and indefinable. They are actually living, breathing 
human beings who bear the image of God. You need to be able to 
go to the texts that protect those children. You need to be 
able to issue a challenge to the ungodly who treat human life 
as if it's incidental or accidental. And we need to engage in faithful 
witness in our community. Faithful witness, pointing the 
way to the Lord Jesus Christ, doing what Paul says, Not in 
the specific realm of abortion, but as a general Christian ethic. We are to shine His lights in 
a crooked and perverse generation. And we are to hold forth the 
Word of Truth. In order to hold that Word forth, 
we need to know that Word. In order to shine His lights, 
we need to image the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to take seriously 
the whole counsel of God and live as He would have us to do. 
There needs to be a prophetic witness and testimony today. 
This does not mean I believe in the abiding validity of the 
office of the prophet. No. I mean that we're to live 
as Zephaniahs, and we're to live as Habakkuks, and we're to live 
as Obadiahs, and Jonahs, and Micahs. Well, maybe not Jonah, 
because then we'll go the other way when we're supposed to go 
witness. We're to live as Jeremiah. We're to live like our Lord Jesus. 
We're to be like Paul the Apostle. We're to be like Peter. It's 
interesting tonight in our study in Zephaniah, God says the end 
is coming for Judah. The threefold exhortation? Seek 
the Lord. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. That's what we need to be telling 
people. Notice the biblical order. Seek the Lord. Alec Motner in 
his commentary says, the way we flee from God is to flee to 
God. We seek the Lord and then those 
other things. Every false religion will tell 
you to be righteous and be humble, and then you'll have the Lord. 
The prophet Zephaniah says, seek the Lord. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. That's what we 
need to testify of. That's what we need to declare. 
Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we give 
you thanks for the comprehensive character of your holy word. 
We thank you that it speaks to every area of our lives, and 
we just pray that you'd help us to think your thoughts after 
you. And God, we pray against this wickedness of abortion. 
God, it is an abomination to you. We know that you abominate 
hands that shed innocent blood, and that goes on each and every 
day, Father, and it rises up to you. The blood of righteous 
Abel called out to you from the ground, certainly the blood of 
all these judicially innocent babies cries out to you. All 
we can pray, God, is have mercy. The prophet said, in your wrath, 
remember mercy. We pray for mothers and fathers 
that are contemplating this activity. We pray that you'd put preachers, 
Christians, people in their path that would plead with them. to 
be reconciled unto you through our Lord Jesus Christ. And we 
do pray, God, for a society, for a day and age in which this 
crime will be criminalized. It will be seen as the moral 
atrocity that it is. That it will not be continued 
on and not funded and not subsidized and not paid for by tax dollars. God in heaven, we just pray out 
to you that your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. 
And we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.